Trans Folk are not Your Fucking Shock Troops: What can Cis People do?

I see pictures of a protest. It can be about just about anyone’s rights, maybe nothing that directly addresses trans rights, and in the street and there are dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people. But what draws my attention isn’t the crowd size. It is who is at the front: more often than not, trans folk will be among the vanguard of the protest. These trans folk know how trans folks are treated by police and the criminal justice system. Yet they are the ones in front. It is time for others to step up for us.

The oppression against transvestites and transsexuals of either sex arises from sexist values and this oppression is manifested by homosexuals and heterosexuals of both sexes, in the form of exploitation, ridicule, harassment, beatings, rapes, murders, use of us as shock troops, sacrificial victims, and others. — Jan. 1, 1971 Detroit Gay Liberator, P. 10
(from the Transgender Archive)

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You Want to Take Away my Window

I am autistic. I’ve always been autistic, and I always will be autistic. Autism is part of who I am, just as my sense of humor and my emotions are part of me. I like who I am, even my autistic part.

You see, autism isn’t an awful condition. I’m not condemned to an “un-natural life.” Yet, I have lived a life with pain, fear, and confusion. Pain because of your cold heart. Fear because of my past, and because of my future in a your world, which can’t tolerate uniqueness. Confusion because of my ways of interpreting your world and because of the deceit, lies, and apathy in it.

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My Proudest Childhood Moment (and a bit on labels)

A note: This talks about self-harm and bullying.

It was the last day of elementary school, and I was in the principal’s office. Was I not going to be allowed to graduate elementary school?

But lets take a step back, and see how I got there. When I went to school, elementary students would do the “Presidential Physical Fitness Test”. It involved things like pull ups (for people assumed to be boys; for people assumed to be girls, it was a flexed arm hang), sit-and-reach, shuttle run, sit-ups, and 600m run/walk. For each age, there was a standard that if you met, you would get some sort of award. I wouldn’t know much about that.

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Communication Speed Mismatches

Think about what makes something accessible. You probably think of ramps and elevators, and maybe you think of things like sensory needs. What about communication speed? Communication speed can be just as much of a barrier as a set of stairs, particularly for some autistic or neurodivergent folk.

A group of people sitting in a large room in a circle, talking. It looks like some sort of support group. — Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

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